JPH04236839A - Rotation transmission device with encoder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a function as an encoder, to reduce size, to cause a device to form compact structure, and to reduce weight by locating a part to be detected at least in one spot on the timing belt or the pulley of a rotation transmitting means and detecting the part to be detected by means of a detecting means. CONSTITUTION:A timing belt 15 through which running of a motor 11 is transmitted to a rotary shaft 12 can transmit rotation without incurring of a loss, such as a slip, and rotation of a rotary shaft 12 accurately responds to the feed of the timing belt 15. In which case, a part to be detected is formed such that a number of microthrough-holes 17, 17... are formed at equal intervals in the timing belt 15 run around a pulley 13 of the motor 11 and a pulley 14 of the rotary shaft 12 and therebetween. By locating a transmission type photo sensor, i.e., a photo coupler 18, to detect the microthrough-hole 17 being the part to be detected, a detecting mechanism in the rotary angle position of an ultrasonic transmitter receiver is formed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rotation transmission device with an encoder, which has an encoder function added to the rotation transmission device.

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION For example, a radial scanning type ultrasonic inspection apparatus has a means for rotationally driving an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver. In order to display this as an ultrasound image on an ultrasound observation device, it is necessary to acquire information regarding the rotational angular position of the ultrasound transmitter/receiver. For this,
In a radial scanning ultrasonic inspection apparatus, a rotational drive device that rotationally drives the ultrasonic transceiver includes a rotational drive means for the ultrasonic transceiver and an encoder that detects the rotational angular position of the ultrasonic transceiver. .

[0003] In recent years, ultrasonic examination devices have been used, in addition to those that probe from outside the body skin, as well as those that are inserted into the body and receive all the ultrasonic waves directly from the inner wall of the body cavity toward the affected area. Insertion type devices have also been developed, and so-called ultrasonic endoscopes, which have endoscopic functions and ultrasonic observation functions, have also come into use. In general, body-insertable ultrasonic examination devices including ultrasonic endoscopes have an operating section connected to an insertion section with an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver attached to the tip, and this operating section is located outside the body. The insertion section and the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver are operated using the insertion section. Therefore, in the above-mentioned radial scanning type ultrasonic inspection apparatus, the rotational driving means and encoder of the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver are provided in the operating section.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The operating section is directly held and operated by a doctor or the like who operates the ultrasonic examination apparatus, and therefore, from the viewpoint of operability, it is necessary to reduce the weight and to operate the operating section. There is an extremely strong demand for compactness. However, as described above, if an encoder is provided in addition to the rotary drive means, there are drawbacks such as the weight increases and the space required for the installation of the encoder.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to reduce the size and size of the rotary drive means and the encoder by integrating the rotary drive means and the encoder. The aim is to achieve weight reduction.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a pulley on the output shaft of a motor and a rotating shaft rotationally driven by the motor, and provides a timing belt between each pulley. The timing belt or any one of the pulleys is provided with a detected portion at least at one location in the rotation transmission means formed by winding the timing belt, and the detected portion is detected by the detection means. It is something to do.

[0007]

[Operation] By adopting such a configuration, the timing belt or pulley that constitutes the rotation transmission means can have the function of an encoder, and there is no need to attach a separate encoder, so the overall rotation The structure of the drive device can now be simplified, and its size, compactness, and weight can be reduced.

[0008] Here, the encoder function of the rotary drive device includes one that has a function of displaying the rotation angle, one that has a function of displaying the origin position, and one that displays both the origin position and the rotation angle position. Some have functions. If only the origin position is to be displayed, the pulley may be provided with this encoder function, or the timing belt may be provided with the encoder function. On the other hand, in order to increase the angular resolution when detecting the rotational angular position, it is preferable that the timing belt, which is a long member, has an encoder function. In order to provide this timing belt with an encoder function, for example, the timing belt may be provided with optically detectable detection parts at predetermined pitch intervals, and this light detection part may be detected using a transmission type or reflection type sensor. or to detect
It is also possible to use a magnetic detection mechanism or the like.

[0009]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, Fig. 1 shows an example of a rotary drive device.
This figure shows a mechanism used as a rotational drive mechanism in an ultrasonic endoscope in which a radial scanning ultrasonic inspection device and an endoscope are integrally provided. In the figure, 1 indicates an insertion section inserted into a body cavity or the like, 2 indicates a main operation section, and 3 indicates a sub-operation section. An illumination window 4 and an observation window 5 serving as an endoscope are provided at the distal end of the insertion section 1, and the inside of the body can be observed through the observation window 5. Further, the portion of the insertion section 1 on the distal side of the portion where the illumination window 4, observation window 5, etc. are provided is a rotating body 1a, and an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 is attached to this rotating body 1a. . Therefore, by rotationally driving this rotating body 1a, the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 can be rotated to perform radial scanning. The main body operation section 2 is used to perform operations such as changing the observation field of view by orienting the distal end of the insertion section 1 in a desired direction, and selecting a site for ultrasonic examination. In order to carry out various operations, the main body operation section 2 is designed such that it can be held by the operator or the like who operates the ultrasound endoscope. Further, the sub-operation section 2 is provided with a rotation drive device 10 for causing the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 to perform radial scanning.

The rotational drive device 10 has a motor 11 and a rotating shaft 12, and pulleys 13 and 14 are attached to the output shaft and rotating shaft 12 of the motor 11, respectively. A timing belt 15 is provided in a wound manner. The rotating shaft 12 is connected to the base end of a rotation transmission cable 16 made of multiple coil springs, etc., which is connected to the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 (or the rotating body 1a in which the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 is built) at its tip. has been done. Therefore, when the motor 11 is driven, its rotational driving force is transmitted to the rotating shaft 12 via the timing belt 15, which rotates the rotating shaft 12 and transmits the rotational driving force to the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 via the rotation transmission cable 16.
The ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 rotates, and during this time the transmitter/receiver surface 6 of the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 rotates.
Ultrasonic pulses are emitted into the body from a, the reflected echoes are received, and the received signals are transmitted to an ultrasound observation device (not shown) and subjected to predetermined signal processing to detect internal tissues. The state can be displayed as an ultrasound image on the display of the ultrasound observation device.

[0011] In order to display the above-mentioned ultrasonic image, it is necessary not only to simply obtain ultrasonic transmission/reception signals, but also a signal regarding the rotational angular position of the ultrasonic transceiver 6. By the way, although the timing belt 15 is used as a means for transmitting the drive of the motor 11 to the rotating shaft 12,
This timing belt 15 is capable of transmitting rotation without loss such as slip, and the rotation of the rotating shaft 12 and the feeding of the timing belt 15 correspond accurately. Therefore, by detecting the feed amount of the timing belt 15, the angle of the rotating shaft 12 that rotationally drives the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 can be accurately detected, and the encoder function can be performed.

From the above, as shown in FIG. 2, the timing belt 15, which is wound between the pulley 13 of the motor 11 and the pulley 14 of the rotating shaft 12, has a large number of minute particles in the belt length direction. The through holes 17, 17, 17, . By providing the photocoupler 18, a mechanism for detecting the rotational angular position of the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 is configured.

[0013] By adopting such a configuration,
By driving the motor 11, the ultrasonic transceiver 6
When the timing belt 15 is rotated, the fine through holes 17 of the timing belt 15 are opened in accordance with the feeding of the timing belt 15.
The photocoupler 18 detects this and generates a pulse signal. Therefore, a signal regarding the rotational angular position of the ultrasonic transceiver 6 can be obtained based on this pulse signal. Here, since the timing belt 15 is sufficiently longer than the circumference of the outer diameter of the pulley 14 attached to the rotating shaft 12, it is possible to obtain an angle detection signal with high resolution. Since angle detection of the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver 6 is not performed using an independent encoder, but is configured by a microscopic through hole 17 formed in the timing belt 15 and a photocoupler 18, the entire rotary drive device 10 is The structure can be made extremely small and compact, and the weight can also be reduced.

Particularly, as shown in FIG. 1, the rotary drive device 10 is built in the sub-operation section 3 connected to the tip of the main operation section 2 which is held by the operator's hand. is to miniaturize the sub-operation section 3 that incorporates the rotary drive device 10,
Reducing the weight significantly improves the operability.

Here, the rotation angle detection mechanism is not limited to one that uses the minute through hole 17 and a transmission type optical sensor as described above, but as shown in FIG. A detected portion 20 is formed by providing a large number of light reflecting members or light absorbing members at equal pitch intervals by means of printing or the like on the side where the light is exposed, and this detected portion 20 is detected by a reflective optical sensor 21. Alternatively, magnetic detection means or the like may be used.

Furthermore, in the rotary drive device, the function of the encoder does not necessarily have to be angular resolution; for example, it may be sufficient to detect only the origin position of the rotation of the rotary shaft 12. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4, an origin display section 22 for detecting a predetermined origin position may be extended, and the origin display section 22 may be detected by a sensor 23. Furthermore, if this origin display section 22 is used in combination with the encoder related to the rotation angle position shown in the first and second embodiments described above, it is possible to obtain two signals: origin position information and angle information. become able to. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5, a through hole 24 (or a light reflecting section) is provided at a predetermined position of the pulley 14, and this is detected by a detection means 25 consisting of a transmission type (or reflection type) optical sensor or the like. By doing so, the function of detecting the origin position can be demonstrated. Furthermore, if very high angular resolution is not required, a sensor that detects the teeth of the pulley 14 can also be used to function as an encoder that acquires angular information.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the rotational drive device rotates the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver in an ultrasonic endoscope in which a radial scanning ultrasonic inspection device is integrated with the endoscope. Although it has been described that the rotary drive device is configured as shown in FIG.

[0018]

As described above, the present invention provides a timing belt or any pulley of the rotation transmission means with a detected portion at at least one location, and detects this detected portion with a detection means. With this configuration, the timing belt or pulley that constitutes the rotation transmission means can have the function of an encoder.
Since there is no need to provide a separate encoder, the overall configuration of the rotary drive device can be simplified, making it possible to make it smaller, more compact, and lighter.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an ultrasonic inspection apparatus equipped with a rotational drive device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration explanatory diagram of a rotational drive device showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration explanatory diagram of a rotational drive device showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration explanatory diagram of a rotational drive device showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a rotary drive device showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Insertion part 2 Main unit operation section 3. Sub-operation section 6 Ultrasonic transceiver 10 Rotary drive device 11 Motor 12 Rotation axis 13,14 Pulley 15 Timing belt 17 Micro holes 18 Photocoupler 20 Detected part 21 Optical sensor 22 Origin display section 23 Sensor 24 Through hole 25 Detection means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A rotation transmitting means comprising a pulley provided on each of an output shaft of a motor and a rotating shaft rotatably driven by the motor, and a timing belt wound between each of these pulleys, the rotation transmitting means A rotation transmission device with an encoder, characterized in that the timing belt or any one of the pulleys is provided with a detected portion at at least one location, and the detected portion is detected by a detection means. 2. The rotation transmission device with an encoder according to claim 1, wherein the detected portion is an origin position detection portion. 3. The rotation transmission device with an encoder according to claim 1, wherein the detected portion is a rotation angle detection portion formed with a predetermined pitch interval.